At what point are you considered a "Machinist"?

It's not a definition so to speak, it's a state of mind.
When you find yourself chucking up on a #2 pencil and sharpening it with a file cuz the the 14 pencil sharpeners you already have won't make a point sharp enough.
You judge everything you pick up at the hardware store to "estimate " how much steel is in it, compared to plastic and other materials.
When you tear something apart, you turn into Sherlock Holmes, detecting just how something was made, right down to the machine, operation and the size of endmill used.
Warranties mean nothing to you.
You have a love/hate relationship with engineers.
Your shop is just tidy enough to find what you are looking for and needing to do. A clean barn is a sign of no horses.
Seems like every tool and other items you buy, needs an "upgrade" right off the bat.
We don't need no stinkin' prints.....just a few key dimensions. If you lose your pencil, a paper towel and a greasy fingernail will suffice. :grin:
 
A valid question, and one I was quite willing to pass on. But I had to log in to answer a technical question below so got involved. I claim many crafts to my credit, mostly as a "jack leg" and "old school" practitioner. Since I have had an engineering degree since 1984, I can legitimately claim to be (have been) an Electrical Engineer.

But before, and since, I have been an Industrial Electrician. That has been my mainstay since I quit school in the '60s. The only "official" recognition I have ever had was in the mid '70s as a Master in Putnam County, Fla. And then only because I was "grandfathered" in when they instituted a permit system and I was working there at the time.

I have had a small lathe and milling machine since 1969, while I was still on active duty. That lathe has been all over the world. . . I now have a small machine shop at my disposal. There is nothing that I can't make, within my own limitations and the size of the machines. I mostly make my own parts, as and when they are needed

What else needs to be included? I've laid block, and brick. Not all that pretty, but wind and watertight. And seemingly structurally sound, it's been around for 30 years and hasn't cracked or sagged under load. There was the "flivver truck", a '49 Chev 1 ton that I rebuilt and kept running for years. The current project is a '68 Chev C-30. It's slow going this time because of the wheelchair. Then there is carpentry, I have literally built houses that people lived in. On one job, I "bested" the architect where he was calling for a custom built timber and when I suggested an alternative, he quickly approved it. Using common framing lumber from a lumber yard. But my finish work is just "what it is". It isn't all that pretty, but covers the framing work.

In any and all of these endeavors, I never claimed to be an "expert" or "Journeyman" anything. Just doing what needed doing, without all that silly a$$ed paper work. And what work has been inspected, was passed first time. So, in my own shop, I am a machinist. Outside of there, I'm not even an apprentice. As with electrical work, any craft if properly driven from the heart, not the pocket book, and done properly, you can call yourself an expert. Journeyman and Master are artifical titles, no more.

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Many of the above are close to the mark in a general sort of way. and obviously there are some differences between a journeyman machinist in industry and a damn good machinist in the hobby sense. The true journeyman machinist can use with competence all of the various machines such as, a lathe, mill, both horizontal and vertical, shaper, planer, surface grinder, cylindrical grinder, tool and cutter grinder, pantograph, radial drill, jig borer, Including selecting and sharpening the correct tools Would certainly be able to hand sharpen a drill bit, and a variety of lathe tool bits. And using these skills make a variety of parts fro drawings holding the tolerances as specified, at least to .0001".

A hobby machinist may be somewhat limited in the available choice of machines, but in my opinion should be competent with at least couple of them, particularly a lathe and a mill, being able to do milling processes on a lathe would be acceptable, I'd also include being able to hand sharpen a drill bit, and some basic lathe tools, e.g. left and right turning screwcutting, including internal, multi start threads, at least two starts, Parting off. And of course all the associated measuring and hold a tolerance of at least .001"

By this definition many of the members here who have not had formal training would in my opinion qualify for "Hobby Machinist"

DownunderBob.
 
Call me anything you want, just don't call me late for dinner. I guess in the end I qualify as a dilettante. I know a little bit about everything, but not much about anything. I know I see some great work here, so perhaps we can open up an "honorary" title classification for those of us who aren't the real deal. Cheers, Mike
 
When I entered the trade in 1995, the retiring tool & die makers I worked with were "machinists". Gods is more like it, those guys were amazing.

I've reached the highest machinist classification within a global corporation, but kinda laugh because I'm still nowhere near the guys that trained me. I suppose 20 more years of challenging myself could get me close?

There isn't really a standard for education in the states anymore in a professional setting. It is common for most to just lie on their resume, then sink or swim in the position.

10,000 hours is a pretty good threshold, but those hours must be spent at a higher quality than simply pushing a blinking button on a CNC, while loading parts into a hydraulic fixture.

Believe it or not, the average hobby machinist is probably more competent than the modern pro counterpart. It's all about low skill/wage production anymore, with very little room for advancement.

Anecdotally speaking, most machinists have no passion or desire to improve. They are perfectly happy doing the same thing day after day and whine when anything upsets the status quo.
 
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bakrch said:
Believe it or not, the average hobby machinist is probably more competent than the modern counterpart. It's all about low skill/wage production anymore, with very little room for advancement.
Click to expand...

At my last job we had a guy that about 35 and had worked running CNC's for over 10 years.

I was busy with my work so they gave him a job I normally ran since I did all the oddball hard to set up jobs. He asked me how I held it to machine it and I said in a 3/8" 5c collet and collet closer.

He asked me, "What is a 5c collet"

When I talked about it to my boss he just shook his head. I ended up running the job on overtime.
 
alloy said:
At my last job we had a guy that about 35 and had worked running CNC's for over 10 years.

I was busy with my work so they gave him a job I normally ran since I did all the oddball hard to set up jobs. He asked me how I held it to machine it and I said in a 3/8" 5c collet and collet closer.

He asked me, "What is a 5c collet"

When I talked about it to my boss he just shook his head. I ended up running the job on overtime.
Click to expand...
Yep, I stopped documenting setups years ago because of questions like that.

It's not that I mind explaining the difference between, say a double angle and ER style collet ... it's about the 5th time answering the same person that makes my left eye start twitching.

Not 1 person cares about learning, and those who did were treated as outcasts and left. Sad really.
 
I agree with the comment “If you have to ask if you're a machinist, you aren't.”
Many years of operating and maintaining a variety of machines will put you in consideration to be called “journeyman”. However, to be called ”machinist” requires one to be qualified to build, design, repair, maintain and operate virtually any machine. Not too little short of “Mechanical Engineer”.
One capable of any type of operation that would be necessary In the field of machine use. IMHO....... But then I only started in 1952, so I guess I have some time to go yet !
 
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